ABSTRACT
At the start of insurgency activities immediately after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, the British South Africa Police quite correctly insisted that the Army was in support of the Police and not vice versa. The type of operation conducted during this period tended, however, to emphasise military rather than police actions. Since incur sions were conducted in large groups across rela tively uninhabited areas, counter-insurgency opera tions required tracking and pursuit operations that seemed to fall more within the military domain than within that of the Police. The attitude, particu larly amongst middle and lower ranking Rhodesian Army officers, as well as that of the Department of Internal Affairs (now Home Affairs), was not condu cive to an effective, total counter-insurgency effort.
